Alternate Reality, Tyson reunites with Rooney post prison

Tough question. I think he lost some speed and he wasn`t as fluid as he once had been. He was starting to deteriorate even in the late 80s a little. Mike became more of a just a bomber after the Spinks fight. It`s really hard to say. Tyson had enough talent and power as it was to beat 90% of the heayweights fighting. With that extra edge and conditioning I`d say he probably beats Lewis and has a much better shot at beating Holyfield. If he got the fire back as you say then we would have seen him fighting every two months and that is where the confidence would come from.

I think Tyson would be a slower, more poised, but still very effective fighter. He would have been able to use his experience if he was in top condition. As Ray Arcel would say "the game is 80% mental. You have to be able to think in there or your just another bum in the park"

Anyway interesting question

 

Douglas knocked a lot of the fight out of him, once that aura has gone it never fully comes back.

 

Nothing changes. Tyson was not only self destructive but he was very apathetic later in life. The day of his prison release all the top boxing execs and Don King met at his house to go over the new contracts. Tyson couldn't be bothered with any of it so he sat in the living room by himself watching X-men cartoons eating cereal. Before their meeting was finished, he kicked them all out because he wanted to have sex with his wife.

And that's not even mentioning the drug addiction and constant drinking which Mike has admitted to throughout all his career. Plus Mike best habit was to keep a stable of non stop women in his bed chasing anything he could. On the Joe Rogan podast Charlie Murphy told a story that highlights how reckless and impulse he truly was outside the ring. Tyson was picking up girls in a club, he approached a whole bunch of girls he had never met. Tyson said "Do you like cars?". The girls replied "yes". Right there in the middle of the club, he took them out to a luxury dealership and bought each of these strange new girls new cars.

 

I think having Rooney back would have changed things tremendously

 

Kevin Rooney knew one style (the peek-a-boo). Rooney used that style. Tyson used it. Any guy Rooney trained was taught it (including guys like Ricky Meyers).

Rooney didn't develop specific strategies to beat certain fighters like an Eddie Futch would do. He didn't know how to instruct a person to changes strategies during fights. He wasn't someone who looked at a fighter and saw his strengths and weaknesses, and taught the fighter different ways to use his strengths and hide his weaknesses.

Rooney knew one style and taught it. That's it. In that regard, he wasn't a great trainer at all.

Tyson knew more about that style than Rooney did. He was better at it than Rooney was.

Arturo Gatti had one style during the first half of his career. He got a trainer to change his style to more of a boxer at times. If Tyson could've learned to box from a distance more, like the short Orlin Norris did so well, maybe he could've extended his career at the top a little longer. Because once he ran into guys he couldn't steamroll, he was in trouble. But Rooney wasn't a guy who could've taught him that.

Tyson had a hall of fame career. I don't know if any trainer realistically was going to improve upon that. He did fine.

 

The problem with your scenario is Rooney wasn't the best trainer and he wasn't vice free, either. When Tyson got out of prison, Rooney was broke, obese and doing nothing himself.

Rooney wasn't going to be the guy to clean up Tyson. Rooney needed cleaned up more than Tyson did.

 

I'm not getting all these Tyson threads... most of them are the... who cares type...

 

I'm not entirely sure Douglas knocked the fight out of Tyson, but he did damage his arua of invincibility thats for sure. The perfect Tyson myth was destroyed that night, Mike became a normal human being. He was coming back pretty well after Douglas when you look at it though, he beat Stewart easily after Holyfled had a hard fight with him and the Ruddock fights were good scraps. By this time Tyson was back on the scene looking dangerous, heavily favored to beat Holyfield. that doesn't sound like a guy that had the fight beat out of him. Tyson's self destruction as a person then prison then suffering a humiliating loss to Holyfled I would say beat the fight out of him.

As for Rooney, Id agree it wouldnt make much difference, Tyson was getting too old for that style and as said, Rooney only knew that way of fighting. I dont underestimate his influence on Tyson though, he was good at keeping Mike calm and focused, they had a real trust between them but its a question of that carrying over post prison. I think they were one of the great pairings in boxing, neither were the best ever but together they had a great chemistry and managed to achieve a lot, but it was always short lived I think personally. Rooney also had issues as said.

 

He'd beat Holyfield and stay champ up until around 98 when he faces Lewis. That fight will be 50:50, anything could happen.